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CNN
5 days ago
- General
- CNN
Just two Navajo Code Talkers remain alive. Here's what they want America to know
Eighty years ago, as the sea swayed him from side to side on an attack vessel heading towards Iwo Jima, Thomas Begay started to feel afraid. 'On the ship, they said: 'get your last scrap of steak and eggs,'' he recalled. 'That gave (me) some kind of feeling in my stomach. What am I doing here? What's going to happen?' 'It's a scary thing,' the veteran told CNN from his home in Window Rock, Arizona. 'You don't know where the bullet or the bomb will come from.' Begay landed on the island as a member of the 5th Marine Division, but his role was unique: He was a Navajo Code Talker, deployed into battle to help the US military send encrypted messages that enemy forces were unable to decipher. More than 400 Navajo Code Talkers were sent to the Pacific during World War II, operating alongside the Marines at pivotal battles including those at Saipan, Guam, Tinian and Iwo Jima. Their code proved vital: it was never cracked by the Japanese, and allowed US troops to organize their movements without the enemy's knowledge. Thursday is National Navajo Code Talker Day – an annual celebration created by President Ronald Reagan in 1982. It is also the 80th anniversary of Japan's initial surrender in World War II, which effectively ended the costliest war in human history. The documents codifying their surrender were signed a few weeks later. Today, just two Code Talkers survive. CNN spoke to both – Peter MacDonald, 96, and Begay, who is now 100 – about their recollections from the war and how their contributions are recognized across the US. But while their service is recorded in history books, how they are remembered remains a live issue. The Code Talkers have been dragged into the Trump administration's crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and a years-long effort to create a dedicated national museum has stalled and may stretch beyond MacDonald and Begay's lifetimes. For MacDonald, they are trends with troubling historical echoes. 'It's a form of discrimination,' he told CNN of the Pentagon's deletion in March of webpages documenting their service – an act the Department of Defense reversed, but which drew fury across the Navajo Nation. 'Over 100 years, we lived through all of that discrimination.' 'We need to take a serious look at what we are doing here in America,' MacDonald added. 'At what America has done to Native Americans, and maybe other minorities.' 'We need serious discussion,' he said. 'We cannot go on this way.' The secretive and dangerous journey that led MacDonald into America's history books began when he saw another member of his clan in a Marines uniform. 'I asked: where can I get one of those beautiful uniforms you're wearing?' he told CNN. MacDonald was told he'd need to enlist with the Marines. But there was a problem: he was only 15, two years below the age requirement. That didn't deter him. 'We've been carrying rifles since we were 7 or 8 years old,' he said, telling his fellow clan member: 'We shoot rabbits, we shoot squirrels, we shoot birds, and sometimes I'm a better shot than you.' MacDonald lied about his age and enlisted. He told CNN that on his visit to the enrollment office, he said: 'I don't want the Japanese to ever come here to Window Rock, Arizona.' 'We had seen enough of (that) stuff before, and we don't like it,' he told CNN. 'This is our land and we're going to protect it.' There was an irony to his eagerness. Native people had been full American citizens for just two decades, but they still didn't have the right to vote. Many Native children, including a significant portion of the Code Talker cohort, were still being taken from their families and forced to enroll in boarding schools, where they were stripped of their language and other traditions. With the Marines MacDonald was summoned to a meeting, where he found dozens of fellow Navajo. And in that room, he discovered a secret: The same Navajo language that many of his peers were forced to abandon was now being used to win a war. The idea had been proposed to the Marines by Philip Johnston, an engineer and the son of a missionary who had grown up alongside Navajo children. It was nearly indecipherable: virtually nobody outside the Navajo nation spoke the language. The Code Talkers developed an extensive and complicated code based on their own language, which substituted key military and geographical terms for related images. 'Tank' became 'chay-da-gahi,' which means 'turtle.' 'Fighter plane' 'was da-he-tih-hi,' or 'hummingbird.' In many cases, they were forced to invent new words altogether, because Navajo didn't contain direct translations. When Code Talkers were deployed in battle they were assigned Marine escorts for protection after multiple Code Talkers were mistaken for Japanese soldiers and confronted by US troops. 'A lot of times we were mistaken for Japanese,' Chester Nez, a Code Talker who died in 2014, said in an oral history interview for the Library of Congress. Nez recalled being stopped by a Marine while walking back to camp with a fellow Code Talker on the island of Guadalcanal in 1942. Nez, barred from disclosing any information about the Code Talker program even to fellow Marines, said the pair were telephone operators. 'He didn't believe us,' Nez said 'This guy took a .45 and stuck it in my head and my body … that was the most scary thing that happened to me.' Code Talkers spoke into their hefty radios when an instruction needed relaying. For example, MacDonald explained that on Iwo Jima, a message needed to be sent to headquarters: 'Send demolition team to hill 362B.' The message that was transmitted over radio was: 'Sheep. Eyes. Nose. Deer. Destroyer. Tea. Mouse. Turkey. Onion. Sick horse. Three. Six. Two. Bear.' In all, more than 800 messages were sent between Code Talkers at Iwo Jima. Begay was one of those on the island, and he remembers how he felt when he saw an American flag raised on Mount Suribachi. It had been hoisted by six Marines days earlier, a moment captured in an iconic photograph by the Associated Press photojournalist Joe Rosenthal. 'My God,' he said. 'I was so proud.' When MacDonald and Begay returned to the US after the war, they were sworn to secrecy. The code talker program remained classified until 1968, in case the military should ever need to reactivate it. For the Navajo who powered the program, that meant returning to their pre-war lives, excluded from the heroes' welcome that many other returning soldiers received. 'We had really gotten used to being treated as a second-class citizen,' MacDonald said, adding his experience was 'no different' after his return. 'We were very much mistreated in America.' 'We were not rich at all,' he continued. 'We were just trying to survive. In the meantime, when you go into town, (non-Native) people make fun of you: people tell you … 'you don't sit there, you eat over there, you don't use this, you do that.'' Begay's son remembers the day the secret was lifted: his father came home and finally told his family what he had done during the war. 'Right away I started asking him questions at the dinner table,' said Ronald Begay, himself a veteran of the Army. 'I didn't know that, because it was never in the history books. I was proud of my dad.' Both men had long post-war careers. Begay retired in 1984 after 40 years of federal service as a superintendent at the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Chinle, Arizona. MacDonald's legacy is more complicated. He served four terms as the Navajo Nation chairman, becoming popular for aggressively championing Navajo sovereignty. But he was sentenced to jail time in 1990 on federal and tribal charges, including bribery and racketeering; his earlier refusal to step down when placed on administrative leave led to a lengthy standoff and ultimately a riot in which two of his supporters died. President Bill Clinton would ultimately commute his sentence to time served. At a White House reception hosted by President Donald Trump in 2017, MacDonald said he and his then-12 fellow surviving Code Talkers had one last mission: to ensure the memory of their accomplishments was kept alive. It is not a memory that has always been respected. MacDonald had hoped that 'Windtalkers,' a 2002 action movie based on their contributions, would serve as a cultural touchstone for a new generation. But the production was critically panned and criticized for its historical inaccuracies. 'They asked us to come to their opening,' MacDonald told CNN about the movie's premiere. 'And what do we see? About 20% of the movie was Navajo Code Talkers. 80% of the movie was about Nicolas Cage and whatever problem he was having with his girlfriend,' he said. For several years, one of the best collections of artifacts relating to the Code Talkers was found in an unlikely place: a Burger King in Kayenta, Arizona. Small exhibits also exist in museums in nearby Tuba City and in Gallup, New Mexico, but MacDonald has campaigned for a museum dedicated solely to the Code Talkers. That project is ongoing. Earlier this year, the surviving Code Talkers experienced an unexpected new assault on their legacy. Amid a sweeping purge of webpages that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, the Pentagon wiped a number of pages honoring the contribution of MacDonald, Begay and their peers. It was part of a hurried crackdown that also saw the deletion of information completely unrelated to DEI issues – like Holocaust remembrance, suicide prevention and the Enola Gay aircraft – or pages that commemorated other war heroes like World War II Medal of Honor recipient Pfc. Harold Gonsalves and historically significant service members such as baseball great Jackie Robinson. 'The new administration came in, and I guess they want to change a lot of things,' MacDonald told CNN. 'They wanted nothing, no words, about Navajo Code Talkers.' Multiple defense officials told CNN at the time that military units were instructed to simply use keyword searches like 'racism,' 'ethnicity,' 'history' and 'first' when searching for articles and photos to remove. The Pentagon subsequently restored the pages, and Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot said in a statement at the time: 'In the rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.' The episode became a flashpoint in the national controversy over the Trump administration's targeting of DEI initiatives. Ronald Begay, who champions his father's efforts to preserve the Code Talkers' legacy, said he was 'appalled' by the saga. 'I immediately started texting the Navajo Code Talker descendants, as well as some prominent veterans – we support each other in various ways,' he said. 'Why would they do that?' he asked. 'After all, that's why we are free … our language was historic.' The episode was quickly undone. But for the Code Talkers and their descendants, it struck at the heart of a deep-rooted fear: that their legacy will be sidelined once MacDonald and Begay are not longer around to tell their stories. 'We need a good 'thank you' from the people who have become wealthy in America,' MacDonald said. He'd like a new movie to be made about their contribution, alongside a permanent, dedicated museum. MacDonald and other Code Talkers have campaigned for years to make the museum project a reality, but it remains tens of millions of dollars out of reach, the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper reported in 2023. CNN has contacted organizers of the project for an update on its progress. 'I don't believe (people) understand this tremendous contribution to the battle in the Pacific War,' he said. 'It made all the difference in the world.' The next time a post-war milestone is met, it is possible that no Code Talkers will be alive to greet it. But MacDonald and Begay hope their contribution to American history is remembered once they are no longer present to tell their stories. 'I believe this is the only country in the entire world blessed by the holy ones,' MacDonald said. 'And we need to keep it that way.' But the Pentagon's DEI purge and the lack of progress on the long-running effort to cement the Code Talkers' legacy with a museum has angered him. 'We need to get back to serious thinking (about) how we're gonna live into the next century,' he said.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
NB3 Matchplay to return this fall with new-look field
May 15—One of the most unique events in college golf is set for an encore. The NB3 Matchplay is returning for a second year, Golf Channel announced in a release this week. After debuting last fall, the Notah Begay III-sponsored event will be held Oct. 7-8 to coincide with the International Balloon Fiesta. Matches will be broadcast on Golf Channel out of Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, the site of last year's tournament. Advertisement Begay, an Albuquerque native and former golfer on the PGA Tour, previously said he would be interested in holding another NB3 Matchplay after last year's "success." "The live national television broadcast on Golf Channel proved to be a huge success for our sponsorship partners," Begay said in a release. " ... I'm so thankful to Santa Ana Pueblo for hosting this prestigious event as it has given us the chance to showcase the world class Twin Warriors golf course as well as the resort amenities. "The second edition of this championship will prove to be another win for everybody in the state of New Mexico." The men's field will feature New Mexico, New Mexico State, UNLV and Oregon, coached by one of Begay's former college teammates in Casey Martin. The women's field includes both in-state schools and new additions like Texas A&M and Arizona. Advertisement UNM, NMSU, Stanford and Texas' men's and women's teams comprised last year's field. The Aggies and Longhorns won last year's men's and women's titles, respectively. The tournament will retain last year's round robin format, with each team in respective fields playing each other for five points a match. The team with the most points at the end of three matches will receive the title. A press conference with further details is scheduled for mid-June.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Yahoo
Sunset Crater National Monument stabbing: Suspect arrested
The Brief Brandon Begay, 31, is accused of stabbing another man at Sunset Crater National Monument in Flagstaff. The victim in the stabbing is expected to survive. Begay is accused of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - A suspect accused of stabbing another man at Sunset Crater National Monument in northern Arizona has been arrested. What we know The Coconino County Sheriff's Office says deputies on April 21 responded to reports of a man getting out of a car and obstructing traffic near Highway 89 and Silver Saddle Road. Deputies say the man was nearly hit by passing vehicles. "While in route, deputies were informed the individual had re-entered a white Ford Fusion with another male and was traveling north on Highway 89," the sheriff's office said. Shortly after, deputies learned the two men were seen at the Sunset Crater National Monument Visitor Center. "Deputies responding to that location were advised that the suspect vehicle had left, now with only one occupant, while the second male had left the area on foot," CCSO said. Authorities spotted the vehicle along Highway 89 and stopped it, where they found that the driver had been stabbed. "He informed officers that the individual who had left on foot from the visitor center was the suspect," CCSO said. The victim is expected to survive. Deputies learned the suspect was last seen walking toward Bonito Campground. "During a search of the campground and surrounding area, a male matching the description was spotted on Forest Road 776," CCSO said. "When a deputy attempted to make contact, the suspect fled on foot. He was eventually detained but was determined not to be the stabbing suspect." CCSO says the man was found to have outstanding warrants out of Coconino County. He was arrested and booked into jail. The stabbing suspect, identified as 31-year-old Brandon Begay, was arrested after deputies resumed their search near the visitor's center. "While searching for foot tracks in the area, officers located shoeprints leading from the campground into the nearby lava flow," CCSO said. "The shoeprints were followed, and the suspect was successfully located and taken into custody without further incident." Begay was booked into jail and is accused of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. What we don't know CCSO did not say what events led up to the stabbing. The stabbing victim was not identified.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
Florida man confronts neighbor accused of shooting protected bird, video shows
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – A heated confrontation between a Florida homeowner and his neighbor over the shooting of a protected bird has prompted outrage in the community. The exchange took place in Madeira Beach after the neighbor, identified as a 42-year-old male, allegedly shot a heron, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). FWC said the man accused of shooting the birds later admitted to doing so. 'No longer a spring break town': Florida beach town tells 'idiots' to 'go somewhere else' Footage of the confrontation, taken by the accuser, begins as he approaches his neighbor. A lifeless great blue heron appears to be floating in the neighbor's pool. The man then accuses his neighbor of shooting the protected bird, saying such activity is 'highly illegal.' He also claims that he overheard the neighbor discussing plans to rid his property of the birds. 'No, I said I was going to try to get 'em away,' the 42-year-old says at one point. 'You moved into the birds' house. You cannot kill the animals that live here,' the man filming the video shoots back. The 42-year-old is also heard claiming he 'did not mean to kill the damn thing' but rather scare it away. FWC officers responded to the home on April 12 in response to a complaint, and found a dead heron and a dead mallard duck in the homeowner's yard. The agency said the man told them he shot the birds with a pellet gun to keep them away from his pool. The man accused of shooting the birds was cited for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and was issued a notice to appear in court. Speaking with Nexstar's WFLA, Charlotte Arndt, an education coordinator at Seaside Seabird Sanctuary, said no one should be shooting at a protected bird. 'My best advice is if you don't want to have great blue herons on your property, don't move to a place where great blue herons live,' Arndt said. 'Removing any one bird from the area especially during mating season can have a devastating effect on the babies. Of course both parents contribute to the nest but taking one of those parents away takes a lot of the resources away which makes it less likely that all the eggs that hatch are going to become fledged adults.' Battle of the birds: Florida considers changing state bird The Seaside Seabird Sanctuary is about 10 minutes from where the incident happened. The vice president of the Clearwater Audubon Society, Kim Begay, said the 42-year-old could've reached out to the sanctuary, the FWC or even the Audubon Society for help. 'It's not that hard to deter them,' said Begay. 'You can install motion activated sprinklers. You can actually just bang a pot really loud when you see the bird in your backyard.' Begay said the neighbor may now be facing misdemeanor charges as a result of this incident. 'If you have a problem like this, reach out. Please don't just start shooting. It's not the way to go,' said Begay. The Audubon Society, however, also recommends getting law enforcement involved before confronting a neighbor on a problem. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
